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Ellis Boyd 'Red' Redding
''Ellis Boyd "Red" Redding is a supporting character of Stephen King's The Shawskank Redemption and the narrator of the movie.'' History Red was an Irish man. His father died when he was nine years old. At age 22 in 1927 he impregenanted a young rich sulky girl from the other side of his town. Her father was a rich businessman who gave Red a job in his business. Red was full of hatred at his position under his wife's dad. Hateful,Red cut the brakes on his car, planning to kill his wife and collect her life insurance. However, what Red did not plan for was that his wife would stop down the road and pick up the neighbor woman and her infant child. The car crashed into a fountain and killed all three of them. Red was an oldtimer who had served 20 years by the time Andy arrived in 1947. Red is a prison smuggler,active since a long time. His trade is explained in detail in the novel. Red explains that he can smuggle a variety of goods from outside and he sells them in return for the price plus his own margin. Red has smuggled booze,posters, cigarettes, milkshakes and once even arranged a movie screening. He has occasionally done time in solitary for the same. Red is also an important convict with some influence over prison guards and overall prison society. When Andy arrives Red doesn't consider him strong enough to live in Shawshank. So thinking that Andy is weak he bets cigarettes that Andy will be the first to break down in tears. He loses the bet however. He explains that in the beginning, Andy was very quiet and didn't say two words. Finally, after a month has gone by, Andy approaches him while Red is playing catch with Heywood and Floyd. Andy tells him he understood that Red was a guy that could get you something you wanted inside the prison. Andy asks Red to smuggle a rock hammer from him. Red is initially wary and reluctant but agrees and smuggles it in return for ten dollars.After that day Red becomes curious about Andy,and likes him for his low key style. After a while they do trade often and Andy asks Red to smuggle a poster of Rita Hayworth. Red obliges gladly. Eventually, Red allows Andy to join his gang of long serving inmates. Over time they become even better and closer friends.After Bogs is beaten by Hadley and Andy is rescued,Red arranges for a Rita Hayworth poster to him as a gift,free of cost.Red also helps him in small jobs when Andy does the accounting for prison guards. Red first describes the sense of freedom Andy gave him when they drank beer after tarring a roof in 1950,a favour Hadley gives to Andy in return for his banking service.Red and Andy share the same fondness for chess and they play it often. In 1955, Brooks Hatlen is to be released from prison. When Brooks seems dismayed and sorrowful at his own parole,Red explains to Andy and othe inmates that Brooks is 'institutionalised' which means Shawshank is Brook's home and only world now.Red says that with time,inmates depend on jail to survive and they have no life outside. Soon after,when Andy plays an opera song over the jail speaker,Red describes the same sense of freedom he feels due to Andy. Andy tells Red that he believes in the power of hope. Red is a pessimist who dismisses hope and advises Andy to stop hoping for a better life. In 1957, Red is eligible for parole after the first time he was denied.Red tries to convince the Parole Board that he is 'rehabilitated'.Howeber his application is rejected. Andy gifts Red a harmonica upon learning that he was a good player once. Red,who had given up playing it since it 'didn't make much sense in jail' starts playing it. In 1963,with 'Inside Out' program being implemented,Andy tells Red a lot about the Warden's scams and how he is helping the Warden launder the money. In 1966, Red allows another inmate into their group, Tommy Williams. As Tommy is curious about Andy and why he is in prison, Red tells him he is in for murder.Andy learns of his wife's true killer from Tommy and when he confronts the Warden he is sentenced to the hole. After Tommy is murdered and Andy is released from the hole, Andy is regretful. Red tries to console him. Andy asks Red if he thinks Red will ever get out of there. Red is pessimistic,saying that he is institutionalised and he will be released when he is old. Red also reflects how most of his life was wasted in prison. Andy then tells him of his dream to go to a Mexican island named Zihuatenjo. Andy describes his dream in detail to Red who is amazed at Andy's capacity to hope. However Red tells Andy to stop dreaming so big. He also says that after spending 40 years in prison,he too is institutionalised.Emotional Andy then asks Red to visit Buxton,Maine and find an oak tree ina particular hayfield. Andy has buried a gift for Red in the hayfield. After listening to this Red starts suspecting that Andy is about to commit suicide. He is convinced when Heywood tells them that Andy borrowed three feet of rope that day. That evening Andy glances at Red as he goes back to his cell. Red spends the whole night worrying . That stormy night, Andy escapes from Shawshank Prison after being there for nearly 20 years. Red is brought in Andy's cell the next day where he sees that Andy has escaped. They then discover a tunnel behind the Rita Hayworth poster. Andy used the poster he got from Red to dig a tunnel using the rock hammer he purchased from Red. For 19 years Andy tunneled away. Red is profoundly impacted by Andy's escape. He realizes that Andy made the best possible use of his time and skills and he also realises that hope is the spirit that made Andy do this.Red is able to guess most of the escape plan. After the death of Norton and arrest of Byron Hadley, Red and his gang discuss Andy often but also miss him. Red then consoles himself by saying that Andy was like a free bird never meant to be caged. A few days later Red receives a blank postcard from Fort Hancock,Texas indicating that Andy crossed the border over it.Red is very glad that Andy is no longer in jail. After 40 years of being in prison Red appears in front of the Parole Board for the third time in his life. Unlike before when he only pretended that he was rehabilitated this time Red says that 'Rehabilatated' is a made up politicians word that means nothing. It is only an excuse for politicians to place Parole Board members and pay them. Red confesses that his crime was terrible and he regrets doing it each day of his life not just because he is in jail or because he is expected to. He regrets it because he was a stupid foolish kid who had no sense. Red says that he wishes to go back in time and stop the kid but he is now an old man and he has to live with that. Red then says that he doesn't care about Parole anymore. Red is paroled. As a parolee,Red finds it difficult to adapt to outside life. He works as a bag boy in Food Way and lives in the same house Brooks had. In the novel Red explains how he feels as a parolee,he says that it is the biggest change he ever adapted to. The world outside is fast and much larger. The songs too are too far and loud compared to the ones he listened to before he went it. Red finds it awkward to be around women. He keeps asking his boss for small things including going to the toilet,because he isnt used to doing anything without say-so. Red keeps thinking about breaking his parole rules and going back to Shawshank where according to him,things make sense. But he keeps thinking of Andy and his escape and so he is able to keep a positive attitude. He acknowledges that he will not be able to make it on the outside but he hopes he can. After a while Red travels to Buxton,Maine and finds the particular hayfield Andy asked him to find . There under an oak tree he finds a volcanic glass rock. He finds a tin underneath. Enclosed in it is 5,000 in cash and a letter from Andy which he wrote after escaping. The letter states that Andy is doing fine in 'the town he mentioned',about to start his own resort and needs a man like Red. The letter also states that 'Hope is a good thing and no good thing ever dies.'Red is overwhelmed. He then carves his name in the house he lives in,right next to Brooks's name which he carved just before committing suicide. Red then travels to Zihuatenjo and reunites with Andy.